Consumers today have many concerns about the environmental issues surrounding agricultural practices utilized to provide food. Many consumers would like to consume food, particularly produce, grown without the use of excessive or chemical pesticides and fertilizers. There is also a very negative opinion on the part of many consumers about the use of genetically modified plants, water usage, and run-off issues inherent to large scale farming processes. In addition, the pollution and transport costs have all become relevant factors to consumer decisions regarding food products.
In response to those concerns, many consumers grow and maintain local, personal gardens. There are a variety of systems that have also been developed that allow consumers to grow gardens in smaller spaces. Many of these systems are based on hydroponics, which necessitate water access, and often electrical access to power circulation pumps for the systems. Some systems utilize soil-filled tubular containers with pump systems for delivering water along the length of the container. But, again, this necessitates electrical access to power pumps.
Another issue that many consumers face, particularly city-dwelling or urban-dwelling consumers, is the change in light patterns over the course of a year. Surrounding structures often result in shaded areas that are not conducive to plant growth. Most container garden systems are stationary due to size, weight, design or, more often, water or electrical requirements. Therefore, the growing season can be shortened or only plants with relatively short diurnal growth periods can be maintained.
Space constraints are probably the most relevant issue for city or urban gardeners. Even for unattached dwellings, the space necessary for growing most types of vegetables is not available or it can be unattractive to use available space for vegetable gardening or for installation of large container systems for vegetable gardening. Further, it may not be practical or desirable to dedicate space to most gardening techniques, which may only be productive for a limited amount of time. Hydroponics and container systems are not usually easy to move around and it is not usually practical to assemble and disassemble such systems on a regular basis. Thus, even when not in use, such systems must often remain in place, in anticipation of when they can be productively used again. Furthermore, the used water and/or depleted soil in such systems need to be purged and replaced periodically for maximum product yield. It can be impractical, unsightly, or even illegal to flush or purge such systems directly onto the ground or into a sewer or drainage system. Thus, these entire systems would have to be disassembled and moved periodically to a different location for such purging.
Despite advances in hydroponics and container-growing gardening methods, the above-described issues continue to be problematic for most home gardeners. There is still a need for a gardening system that can produce sufficient amounts of food product, but which does not require a large amount of space, can be used for a greater amount of time during the year, and, if necessary, can be disassembled or otherwise reduced in size for moving or transport. It would be particularly advantageous if such devices could be used by small scale home gardeners, as well as larger scale community farming or small farm operations. An even further advantage would be for such systems to utilize less water, fertilizers, or pesticides than most systems or even in-ground gardening methods.